University High School junior Zachary Patterson and Grauer School senior Jason Wexler are co-recipients of the 2020 Peter Chortek Leadership Award created as a memorial to Chortek by his family. [Our Shtetl San Diego County by Donald H. Harrison]
Education, cancer battling win Chortek Awards for students Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Travel and Food
The author, born in 1990, earned her Mathematics degree from Middlebury College and completed an MFA in fiction at Columbia University in 2018. The novel is set in crisis plagued New York around 9/11 2001. The author drops almost poetic hints; “Lower Manhattan opened its gates to the general public again…a light northward breeze perfumed the air with drywall dust and soot…we looked south and saw the great gap tooth against the gullet of the sky.” We were at war, from where would the next terror come? [Oliver Pollak, PhD)
A book reviewer’s search for Jewish stories Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Oliver Pollak, Travel and Food
It has been a constant sense of amazement to both my Christian wives, how quickly I can pack a suitcase when we leave on a trip. The spouses would begin packing a week or more before we set out. I never pack until the last few minutes before going out the door. There is a simple explanation, consider the history of my Jewish ancestors, and you can see why. For the last two thousand years, we have always been ready to leave town at a moment’s notice. With that in mind, it is easy to understand when I exclaim: “A Jew can spot anti-Semitism earlier and from more subtle sources than any other person.” We can pick them out in a sold Super Bowl football game, or smell one in a tropical jungle. I personally discovered a previously unknown, festering group, during a four-month road trip my wife Carole and I took around the U.S.A. when we first retired. [Ira Spector]
Those dang fish must be prejudiced! Read More »
Sports & Competitions, Travel and Food, Trivia, Humor & SatireLieng, our fortyish Cambodian woman guide, told us prisoners were brought to these rooms for four months of torture before they were killed. They were defiled day and night without rest. The jailers extracted the names and locations of all their relatives and friends from them. Those people were also arrested and brought to the prison. The first people to be killed once wore glasses. The Khmer Army leaders were ignorant peasants and reasoned that anyone who wore glasses was an intellectual and hence were the enemy. People threw away their glasses and stumbled around when they became aware of this irrational thinking. A similar fate followed for any professional person, doctor, teacher, businessman, bureaucrat, etcetera. The legacy of this stupidity is, that Cambodia desperately needs to rebuild its intellectual capital to fully function as an independent nation. Today it is totally dependent on the aid of other nations to support basic services and repair war damaged structures. [Ira Spector]
Face to face with the Cambodian genocide Read More »
International, Travel and Food
Three themes dominate this enjoyable and informative memoir by a South African-born author who lived in New Zealand, Australia, and the United States before settling with her husband and three children in Israel. [Donald H. Harrison]
Jodi Samuels’ memoir: ‘Chutzpah, Wisdom and Wine’ Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish Religion, Middle East, Travel and Food, USA
As the United States embraces improving race-relations, Black culture and heritage become more than just an expression of the Black community, but something that is inherently all-American. As the movement brings light to nationwide change, it may be helpful to consider the methods of Moroccan multiculturalism, where cultural protection is tied to development, limiting socioeconomic divides and welcoming diversity. [Jacqueline Skalski-Fouts]
Morocco a model for U.S. multiculturalism Read More »
International, Jewish History, Lifestyles, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, Travel and Food, USASome impressions from my tour of Israel, guided by Ithamar Perath, a good friend and scholar. [Ira Spector]
Impressions of a tourist in Israel, circa 2005 Read More »
Middle East, Travel and Food
Large circles, at least six feet apart, were drawn on the upper parking lot of Temple Isaiah, each reserved for a family grouping who wanted to dance, play games, and congregate, yet maintain the proper social distance from other families during this time of Covid19. (Donald H. Harrison)
Temple Isaiah families dance in socially distant circles Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Judaism, Lifestyles, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Travel and Food, USA
Okay, I know there are no synagogues in Santee, and I know it’s surely not a Jewish neighborhood. But I’ll speak up for Santee, even though it is not my community, because I recently heard it spoken of in unpleasant and, I thought, undeserved terms. [Roni Breite]
Santee does not deserve its ‘Klantee’ reputation Read More »
San Diego County, Travel and FoodFor many years I have preached an obvious solution to the Israel desire for peace and an end to many decades of war with the Arab nations. It’s really quite simple… A secret delegation of high level representatives from the Israeli government, some engineers, agronomists and a few of the best chefs travel to the Australian Outback in a timely manner just before Passover. [Ira Spector]
Humor: How to achieve Middle East peace Read More »
International, Middle East, Travel and Food, Trivia, Humor & Satire
With Covid-19 causing many people to cancel their travel plans, especially visits to countries that have imposed a quarantine, some people tune in to YouTube or the Travel Channel to get their “travel fix,” albeit virtually. We decided we could do better while remaining home in California. We went to the San Diego Zoo. [Shor M. Masori and Kenede Pratt-McCloud]
S.D. Zoo enables world travel for those staying home Read More »
Middle East, San Diego County, Sandi Masori, The World We Share, Travel and Food
In December 2001, I was semi-kidnapped by a taxi driver in the state of Karnataka, a remote area in Southeast India. Although scary at the time, it ended being one of many adventures/ stories that happened during the three weeks I was in India, studying with His Holiness (HH) the Dalai Lama. [Mimi Pollack]
Adventures of a Jewish Buddhist Read More »
International, Lifestyles, Mimi Pollack, Travel and Food
Marc Gold hoped he could combine his love of writing and sports into a career; and after college graduation, he worked for newspapers and had a fantasy of owning one. But, like his father, uncles, cousins and a brother, he took a different career path, joining the world-famous condiment company Gold Pure Food Products and was involved in all aspects of the business, including production, quality control, accounts receivable and payable Eventually he was the chief of all sales, shipping and public relations/publicity for decades. [Joel H. Cohen]
The man behind the ‘chrain in Spain’ and elsewhere Read More »
Jewish History, Joel H. Cohen, Travel and Food
I sat down with Rabbi Michael Danziger of the Plum Street Temple (aka B’nai Yeshurun and the Isaac M Wise Temple). The cornerstone was laid in 1865. With only two hundred families at the time, they built a house of prayer that can seat 1,100 directly across from City Hall. [Eric George Tauber]
Jews in the Heart of Porkopolis Read More »
Eric George Tauber, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Travel and Food, USA